Comment by ekianjo
14 hours ago
The security theater needs to go on. In the meantime batteries represent a much bigger risk with potential in flight fires but I guess nobody cares enough to do anything about it.
14 hours ago
The security theater needs to go on. In the meantime batteries represent a much bigger risk with potential in flight fires but I guess nobody cares enough to do anything about it.
Batteries are such an incredible oversight if we are trying to control for kinetic energy.
100 watts for an hour ~= 36000 watts for ten seconds. Every fully charged laptop roughly has enough energy to bring an automobile up to highway speed (once). How many of these laptops exist on a typical flight?
We flew a couple legs on Virgin Atlantic yesterday. The info session before takeoff made several mentions of batteries - unplug devices when not on use / not in your seat, if your battery gets hot, don't leave your seat/notify a flight attendant immediately. (I think they have containers to try to contain lithium fires onboard FWIW.)
Recently flew through china where they asked 3 times if if i had a portable charger and made everyone sign declarations to that effect.
Declarations are meaningless. This will not prevent fires ot occur.
Are battery fires on planes a common problem? I haven't heard of many, at least with any significant consequences.
And what would you suggest be done to reduce the risk? Asking passengers to travel without phones or laptops isn't realistic.
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If batteries were standardized and replaceable I bet they would force you to not bring your own, and only ones purchasable passed the gate could be used. Maybe that a silver lining to the repairability issues.
On Scoot (Budget Singapore Air) they let you bring your external phone batteries on the plane but do NOT let you use them. You have to rent one of theirs.
Skyphone installation by the airlines led to "flight mode" because the horror of not paying is far more important than safety.
All of this fake, useless theatre undermines real security and makes us less safe while picking our pockets.
Fluids to bring down a plane? FFS every human is equipped with a bladder. Why was this charlatanism ever tolerated at all?
The intention/purpose of the limit on fluids was to prevent people from assembling liquid explosives inside the plane. The contents of your bladder would not help with that.
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> Skyphone installation by the airlines led to "flight mode" because the horror of not paying is far more important than safety.
By the time “airplane mode” became common on mobile phones, the phones installed in airplane seats were already decommissioned in most cases.
south Korean airlines are banning battery use in flight now https://www.timeout.com/asia/news/psa-major-south-korean-air...
other asian carriers will say they can't be in overhead compartments
South Korean here, it's all over the news but it sounds rather pointless. Faulty batteries can catch fire even when not in use. And the airlines still allow each passenger to carry up to 5 power banks, 100Wh each. That's enough power to blow up any aircraft.
When gate-checking carryon bags, staff told passengers to take batteries out of the carryons.
It seems like something that is high risk during flight shouldn't be left to passenger compliance with spoken instructions.